Stephen Tambolas CPSM, C.P.M., President & CEO Mr. Tambolas is a founder and President of Strategic Supply Chain Management 5 Inc. Previously he was the Managing Director for Supply Chain at American Healthcare Solutions, LLC in Pittsburgh and the President of The Tambolas Group, serving group purchasing and hospital clients in redesigning hospital supply chain functions to achieve results. As a consultant he has aided clients in saving many hundreds of millions of dollars.

A senior health care professional with over 35 years experience of uncommon expertise in healthcare supply chain management, Mr. Tambolas served on national and regional task forces for the nation’s two largest group-purchasing organizations and international Delphi panels for e-commerce. He is the author of numerous articles on supply chain, quality management, and outsourcing. He has served as the facilitator/trainer for various workshops - including managing the change of culture in a merger setting.

As the first Chief Supply Chain Officer for the four-hospital Pinnacle Health System in Harrisburg, PA he brought the system to a standard platform within 18 months of merger; exceeded national benchmarks; gained recognition for an innovations in structure, software, and consolidated logistics; served as an alpha development site for the world’s largest healthcare e-commerce portal; implemented the nation’s first hospital supplier certification and control program – recognized as a best practice supplier relations program; reduced the impact of non-traditional supply chain areas; and directed the outsourcing of select other services.

Previously, as the corporate Director of Supply Chain for the Polyclinic Medical Center he implemented industry innovations, including: one of the world’s first networked supply chain information systems, a risk sharing supply arrangement that covered the total cost per admission, and one of the nation’s first orthopedic capitation programs.

Earlier, Mr. Tambolas was Director of Purchasing for the Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. At Allegheny he was a pioneer in the then new concept of national group purchasing and developed numerous other support services.

Mr. Tambolas holds his master’s degree in Public Management/Health Systems Administration from the Heinz School, Carnegie-Mellon University, and an undergraduate degree in Information Systems and Business Administration from Robert Morris University. In 1981 he was one of the first healthcare supply executives in the nation to achieve certification with the trailblazing Healthcare Materials Management Society. He is a member of the national board of the Medical Industry Group of the Institute for Supply Management, from where he holds an Original Lifetime C.P.M. and was among the first supply chain professionals in the world to earn the prestigious CPSM credential - and was the first healthcare supply chain executive to do so. He is a past president of his AHRMM chapter and a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

William J. Matthews is the Vice President of Operations with SSCM5 and is primarily responsible for engagements in supply chain and information technology. He is a leading international expert in modern supply chain methods and principles. Mr. Matthews forte and expertise has been to bring measurable value and innovation to organizations seeking positive change that's both intuitive and sustainable while integrating into the ethics and culture of the client.

He has served in various capacities throughout his consulting career, including roles as Chief Supply Chain Officer for two large east coast hospital networks, Vice President of Technology for a start-up software firm and CIO for a major distributor of Office Products Automation. He has also served on the Board of Directors for several corporations.

Mr. Matthews started his career in information technology constructing inventory and replenishment models for automated warehouses. He has designed and setup major grocery and pharmaceutical distribution facilities in North America and Canada, and held positions with Fortune 500 corporations. His responsibilities included the design and implementation of comprehensive real-time MRP systems for manufacturing and the implementation of distribution resource planning systems. He served as the Director of Information Systems for Alco Standard Corporation in Valley Forge Pa. within the Health Services Group which consisted of the Pharmaceutical Distribution (now AmeriSource) and Hospital Supply.

Mr. Matthews started consulting with a major public accounting firm focusing on business development with the assignment of building their systems consulting practice. In 1984 he was retained by Fuller Corporation (now FL Smidth) to design and develop third party distribution and inventory management services as a separate business entity. This experience gave Mr. Matthews the opportunity to launch his own firm, with venture capital backing, MSI, which offered services to process industries. MSI was an early innovator in third party inventory management services for MRO spares. In 1988 Mr. Matthews sold MSI and continued to function as President and COO until 1991.

Mr. Matthews continued to pursue consulting founding the SSI Corp. He was retained by Scott Paper to be part of a re-engineering effort for Scott's Global Supply Chain: delivering in excess of $350 million in savings for Scott and setting the stage for other corporations from a design/process improvement standpoint in developing similar value added models taken from Scott for supply chain development and management.

In 1994 Mr. Matthews took this experience to healthcare - at the Lehigh Valley Hospital: an innovator and leader in its field. He has since been retained by numerous organizations throughout the United States and Europe for consulting and/or to serve in interim managerial and executive positions. In addition to healthcare, his client base includes companies in energy, manufacturing, distribution, technology, and public services. He has done extensive work with start-up technology firms and health care service organizations within the areas of channel marketing, sales, business development and divestitures. These engagements have leveraged his expertise in supply chain and information technology.

Mr. Matthews' educational background included Northampton Community College, Pennsylvania State University (undergraduate) and Lehigh University (graduate). He is an active member of AHRMM.

Richard A. Schmidt, Managing Director – Asset Investment Recovery Services. Richard A Schmidt is an industry expert with over 25 years of experience in marketing to hospitals and understanding their unique needs. Over the past ten years the firm he founded, Equipmed, has provided significant cash recoveries to hospitals for their obsolete and/or surplus equipment via a hospital asset investment recovery and management program. In addition to the recovery of the remaining investment, this has reduced storage needs while freeing space for other purposes. These ten years of hands on experience working with hospital equipment has provided Mr. Schmidt with a superior knowledge of the equipment used in today’s hospitals and the challenges associated with recovering any remaining investment dollars.

 Mr. Schmidt has provided equipment evaluation services for trade-ins, items taken out of service, or for equipment used in physician practices. This assures the buyer and seller that a fair price is applied when negotiating used equipment. Equipment cost reduction has been provided to hospitals by purchasing remanufactured equipment. This has allowed smaller or more prudent organizations the opportunity to obtain equipment at a cost that can be as much as 60% below the price of new.

Previously, as Eastern Regional Sales Manager for Consolidated Business Forms Mr. Schmidt implemented total printing and just in time distribution programs for hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. With his team of ten sales reps he assured that hospitals needs were met and designed solutions to organization flow problems. It was during this period that he became familiar with laboratory and imaging equipment.

Mr. Schmidt was the Vice President of Healthcare Sales for ABG/Royal where he provided “Systems Contracting Programs” for printing and stationery products to major hospitals. The supply program was a “just in time supply” program. The customers included some of the largest hospitals in New York including Columbia Presbyterian, New York Hospital, Beth Israel Medical Center and others.

Richard started his hospital, distribution and marketing experience with ten years at the Standard Register Company, the second largest supplier of printing and forms management to hospitals.